Requiem
by The unexpected answer
Summary: In his weakest moments, Sasuke had always wondered what life would have been like had his clan lived; now he has the chance to discover if the reality is better than the dream.


**Prologue**

The sky was a ribbon of red that bled into purple and pink, pastel coloured homes peppered the surrounding area of green foliage and flowers, and in the middle of all this beauty he stood still; observing. The setting sun was bittersweet in the way it reflected his inner turmoil, his want for happiness uncoloured by his past, yet every time he'd thought it in his grasp…it faded. It was like trying to hold water in one's hands, the tighter he grasped it, the more he lost. A weary sigh escaped past his lips as he closed his eyes in frustration.

'If you were given a choice,' a familiar voice rippled through the silence, breaking him out of his thoughts as his head whipped up in the direction of the intruder, 'would you choose your friends…or your family?'

Sasuke struggled to answer as he found himself staring at a clone of himself, 'I don't have a family,' he replied.

As if he'd anticipated his words, his clone shot back, 'what if you did, would you trade those close to you for say…your mother and father?' The clone smiled slightly as he noted the subtle tightening of his hands, he continued, 'and what about Itachi?'

The scraping sound of his sword sliced through the quiet as he brandished it from its holster, and pointed it at the clone, 'who are you?' He demanded with poorly contained ire that was visible on his brow and in kaleidoscope eyes of red, black and purple.

The clone copied his action, but instead of a sword, he held a curious black sphere, 'why don't you discover it for yourself,' he stated as he threw it at him.

Silver met black in an explosion of light, then everything was consumed by darkness as Sasuke knew no more, his last lingering thought was of a whiskered smile and haunting green eyes.

* * *

'-uke! Sasuke! Wake up! You're late!' He heard in the peripheral of his conscious, his eyelids felt like led as he pried them open.

A hazy blur was leaning over him, when his vision came into focus, he visibly paled, his eyes turning into saucers, 'Kaa san?' He whispered brokenly, his voice sounding higher than he remembered.

Mikoto looked as equally alarmed by her son's strange behaviour, 'what's wrong?' She asked as she placed her palm on his forehead, 'are you sick?'

Wet trails of burning warmth dripped down his cheeks, 'Kaa san!' Sasuke cried as he launched into her arms, his tiny fists clutching the cloth of her back fiercely, afraid she'd disappear.

One of her hands cupped the back of his head and the other rubbed soothing circles on the small of his back, 'shh, it's alright, I'm here,' she said in a soothing tone, 'did you have a nightmare?'

'You…were…you were gone,' he tried to explain, 'everyone was gone!' Behind his squeezed lids, an image of yellow, pink and white hair flashed, calming him somewhat.

He then noted that the hands on his head and back felt larger than his body, his mother held him at arm's length, wiping the tears on his cheeks with her thumbs as she cupped his cheeks, 'but I'm here now.' She assured, dismissing his words as a figment of his imagination rather than his reality.

'Now, get ready and I'll fix you some quick breakfast,' she rose from his bed and headed towards the shogi door, 'you don't want to be late on your first day as a chunin do you?'

As the door slid shut, he sprang up with less dexterity than he was used to and made his way to the nearby mirror.

What he saw reflected there made him feel as if the bottom of his stomach dropped out, a twelve year old version of himself stood before him with the eyes of the person he was before he woke. Torn between frustration and confusion, he tried to will his sharingan and rinnengan to turn off, despite knowing it to be impossible…it worked?

He was left with a perfect replica of him in team seven in their naïve days, 'how is this possible?' He whispered to himself, that's when he recalled the events that transpired before he woke, was it possible that the clone sent him into another reality?

* * *

 **Thank you for reading.**


End file.
